Synopsis: "...more likely than other U.S. soldiers to suffer mild memory
and attention lapses..."... but they also tend to have better reaction
time,"
Hypervigilance, the 'price of freedom'[tm].
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Iraq_Mental_Tests.html
Tuesday, August 1, 2006 ยท Last updated 1:00 p.m. PT
Iraq vets may have memory lapses
By LINDSEY TANNER
AP MEDICAL WRITER
CHICAGO -- Veterans of the fighting in Iraq are more likely than other
U.S. soldiers to suffer mild memory and attention lapses back home, but
they also tend to have better reaction time, at least in the short-term,
a study found.
The findings may simply reflect the normal changes that would be
expected to occur as soldiers make the transition from combat to regular
life.
But they could also signal more serious mental health problems down the
road, said lead author Jennifer Vasterling, a psychologist and
researcher with the Veterans Affairs' Southeast Louisiana Veterans
Health Care System.
The study involved 654 soldiers who took mental-function tests a few
months before going to Iraq in mid-to-late 2003 and within three months
after returning in 2005. The researchers noted subtle changes in their
scores.
If the changes persist, "that's where you have to worry about people
developing stress-related emotional problems like post-traumatic stress
disorder," Vasterling said.
The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association. It is one of the first studies to show war's effect on
military personnel by documenting before-and-after mental function.
Vasterling said the researchers hope their work will help "avoid some of
the ambiguity and confusion that happened after the 1991 Gulf War," when
it was unclear if some soldiers' ills were war-related.
While some of the changes documented in the study could be "considered
as essentially normal coping experiences," it will be important to track
the participants to see if they develop more serious problems, two
British specialists in military psychiatry, Matthew Hotopf and Simon
Wessely, said in an editorial.
A Pentagon study in JAMA earlier this year found that 35 percent of Iraq
vets received psychological counseling shortly after returning, and
earlier research found that about 17 percent of soldiers returning from
Iraq had symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
About 11 percent of the vets Vasterling studied reported such symptoms
upon their return, she said.
Most Iraq vets in Vasterling's study had some type of combat-related
experience. Their before-and-after scores were compared with those of a
group of 307 soldiers who were not sent to Iraq and who took the tests
around the same time.
The psychological tests given are commonly used to measure thinking and
motor skills. Most soldiers in both groups scored within a normal range
on all the tests.
In one test measuring visual memory, participants looked at geometric
designs consisting of squares and dots for 10 seconds and had to draw
the pattern right away and then half an hour later.
Both groups' before-and-after scores declined slightly, but the declines
were bigger among the Iraq veterans. The portion of Iraq veterans
scoring in the bottom quarter on that test increased from 25 percent
before Iraq to about 35 percent afterward.
In an attention-measuring test, a series of alphabet letters flashed
briefly on a computer screen. For about eight minutes, participants had
to watch for a specific letter and press the keyboard space bar or mouse
each time it appeared.
It is the kind of test in which better scores are expected the second
time around because the first time gave test-takers practice. But only
about 1 percent of Iraq veterans who had scored in the bottom range the
first time did better than that the second time, compared with 8 percent
in the non-deployed group.
In a reaction-time test, participants were supposed to press the space
bar or click a mouse as fast as they could each time a snowflake-like
image flashed on the screen. Scores declined among the non-deployed but
improved slightly among the Iraq vets.
The improvement makes sense, because war trains people to react quickly
to life-or-death situations, Vasterling said.
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On the Net:
JAMA: http://jama.ama-assn.org
